Rory McIlroy has said that we need to “weigh up” the possibility of a united Ireland following the Brexit vote.

In an interview with The Telegraph, which took place the day after the referendum result, the world number four golfer said: “If I’m Northern Irish, what’s better? To be part of the UK and not be in the EU? Or to be in a united Ireland and still belong to the EU? People are going to have to weigh that up.”

Overall, the UK voted to leave the EU but Northern Ireland voted to remain, leading to fresh calls from Sinn Fein for a border poll.

Although McIlroy did not have a vote in the referendum as he now lives in the US, he said that he has recently got “really into politics” on both sides of the Atlantic.

With #Brexit and the way the US presidential race is going.... Can we take a mulligan on 2016??

Discussing the referendum he said: “'You have Leave saying that we send £350 million to the EU every week and that we should spend it on the NHS instead, but then Farage comes out later and admits he doesn’t know where that money is going to go.”

He said that he has also been following the US presidential election as Donald Trump prepares to take on Hillary Clinton in the race to the White House.

McIlroy said: “I have seen, from following the US presidential election, how people want to become secure and protected against the volatility of Isil and suchlike. That’s the big reason Leave won the day.”

He also commented on his recent decision to pull out of the Olympics because of the risk of the Zika virus.

He said that it "wasn't worth the risk" because he "hadn't been dreaming about the Olympics his whole life".

He said: "In my opinion, the risk I was going to face didn’t match what I was playing for. The risk wasn’t worth the reward."